Amanda grew up on fairytale

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Amanda Seyfried may be starring in one of the coolest, hippest adaptation of a classic fairy tale produced by Hollywood superstar Leonardo Di Caprio, Warner Bros. Red Riding Hood, but the wide-eyed 25-year-old star admits to not being a fan of fairy tales at all.

“No. They were scary; they were too dark. I was a fearful child,” she told this writer in her soft voice that has a whispery quality to it during a roundtable interview last week at the Hyatt Hotel in Century City. She had a cassette tape of Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk when she was a child and she used to listen to them before going to sleep but she always ends up having nightmares so she stopped listening to the tapes and she never had her mom read her any fairy tales again.

“I didn’t like it,” she added. “I had a book Stinky Cheese Man and I read that a lot because it was about jokes and it made everything a joke.”

She may not be a fan but she expressed pride to have been cast as Valerie, the heroine in the movie who is caught between two handsome suitors trying to win her heart and a werewolf that is also secretly trying to covet her.

Her leading men in the movie are portrayed by two newcomers who could become the next object of desires by teenage girls all over the world just like how Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner became overnight heartthrobs after the release of Twilight, which interestingly was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the same filmmaker behind the first Twilight movie.

Shiloh Fernandez (who told this writer he auditioned for the part of Edward in Twilight) plays the orphan-with-a-bad-boy-streak Peter, Valerie’s one true love while Max Irons — who should interest cinephiles because he is the son of Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons — plays the soft-spoken, industrious Henry, Valerie’s betrothed.

Similar to how the world was divided between Team Jacob and Team Edward, the movie will most likely also divide many girls between Team Henry and Team Peter. And if Amanda were to choose between the two guys, she made no secret to whom would she go with.

“I can’t. I don’t know,” she said, hesitant to pick at first. “Henry is so attractive and so undeniably good guy - no, he’s not boring, he’s a sweetheart - but she just doesn’t know him. And her heart nearly skips a beat for Peter and you can’t deny that, you can’t throw that away if you had a chance to have that at any age. I’d say go for it until it stops working.”

Pay attention, girls: When it was the boys’ turn at the roundtable, both Shiloh and Max revealed that they, too, would go with a girl with a little bit of bad in them.

Amanda considers her role in Red Riding Hood her favorite so far, but then she modestly adds, “My favorite role is always the one I just finished.”

That’s good news in a way because she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make this movie had she successfully argued with HBO to skip a season of the hit series Big Love to be the lead star in Zack Snyder’s much-awaited chick fantasy flick Sucker Punch. She had to beg off at the last minute to shoot the series and that created a window for her to do Red Riding Hood.

The beautiful actress would have wanted out of Big Love because she felt “I wasn’t being used in a way that I felt was worth me losing out on Sucker Punch and Zack Snyder and that big movie. The seven-month shoot would have been a big experience for me.”

She later realized that it was all worth it in the end: She was able to preserve her relationship with HBO and she was able to work with Catherine, who told us that Amanda was her only choice to play the lead. “Those big eyes, they’re amazing!” Catherine remarked.

Amanda started her career on daytime television soaps and only made her leap to the big screen in the Lindsay Lohan hit Mean Girls in 2004. In the short span of time from her film debut, she has since headlined her own hit movies: Dear John, Letters to Juliet and shared top billing alongside Oscar-winners Meryl Streep and Colin Firth in Mamma Mia! and Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in Atom Egoyan’s erotic thriller Chloe.

Her quick ascension to the top of the young Hollywood A-list has given her just enough clout to have lunches and dinners with Hollywood executives and filmmakers all willing to work with her. But that still doesn’t guarantee she gets all the parts she wants. Hollywood remains a fiercely competitive business and committed actors have to really fight over prized roles.

“I sabotaged myself a lot when I was in my teens,” she recalled. “I wouldn’t get roles because I wouldn’t prepare because I was scared - it was so hard. But I prepare now.”

She revealed that she recently auditioned for a choice part in the new Superman movie and didn’t get the part. “Nope, I did not get it!” she exclaimed. “He (the director) doesn’t feel like I am right for it, which is just fine.”

She said it just like that. Her voice never changed, her tone steady. This writer never noticed any tinge of bitterness in the actress when she was telling us how Superman would have been “amazing” for her. “That’s another thing,” she said. “You have to realize that everything happens for a reason. If you don’t get something that you want or you think that you want, there’s a clear-cut reason for it and it goes hand in hand with everything.”

“You don’t get the guy you want; there’s probably a reason for that,” she added with a wink. Amanda’s love life is a public knowledge. She previously dated her Mamma Mia! co-star Dominic Cooper and she’s now rumored to be dating Reese Witherspoon’s ex, Ryan Phillippe.

Asked how she maintains her enviable career, she offered the following advice:

“You should always follow your instincts. If you have a gut feeling about something, you should go for it and, at least, let it be known,” she said. “Admit to that and then think about it. But at the same time have a moment [because] you are so wrapped up in the moment that it is so hard to let your reasoning stand in the way of your heart.”

She was quick to contradict herself later on, saying, “I wish I could say I always follow my instinct, but I don’t because sometimes it is more fun to have what you want now and be damaged later.”

Like every successful movie star, she credits her manager for guiding her career and in providing her the best pieces of advice when it comes to her film choices.

“It’s like two sets of instincts: My instinct and my manager’s instinct. We have the same taste, sometimes I want to do things because I want to have fun like a comedy but then she says, ‘I have a feeling about this.’ It’s usually more about her instinct than mine,” she happily shared.

Red Riding Hood opens tomorrow, March 11.